Crime and Deviance Introduction
- Created by: ChloeBurr_
- Created on: 02-03-16 09:39
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- Crime and Deviance Intro
- Social Control
- Two types:
- Formal
- Police, courts and the armed forces which are subject to control of the state.
- Functionalists would argue that such action is needed where consensus is breaking down.
- Informal
- Family, school, media, religion etc all play a major role in social control through the socialisation process.
- Functionalists would emphasise the positive and beneficial effects of such socialisation in helping people to live stable lives.
- Marxists would argue that the process is repressive in Capitalist societies and is 'used' by the ruling class to maintain their dominance and privileged position.
- Formal
- Two types:
- Coercion
- Used in informal control e.g. smacking a child
- Strong pressures can be exerted
- In all societies there is a system of rewards and punishments
- Strong pressures can be exerted
- Used in informal control e.g. smacking a child
- Social control and punishment
- Punishment is usually presented as a means of deterrence or protection for society in the modern world.
- Durkheim was sceptical about this as he regarded punishment as essentially a form of vengeance.
- Other sociologists such as Stan Cohen see punishment as essentially repressive and often acting in the interests of the ruling class.
- When we think of social control we tend to think of the police and prisons however most control can be less obvious.
- Language is a form of control. The top positions have their own language which others don't understand, this enables people like doctors to maintain their status.
- Timetables are a means of control over time.
- Labelling/ classification helps control people.
- Cohen argues that there have been four great changes in the history of punishment:
- 1) Increased state control, through setting up police forces, courts, prisons.
- 2) SpecialisationWe now have different agencies to take care of different groups of deviants (the sick, the mad, the criminal)
- 3) Segregation.Different groups are put in their own institutions - prisons, asylums, hospitals.
- 4) Humane instead of physical punishments.
- Deviance
- Deviance is an act that goes against the dominant norms of society and which produces disapproval and possibly punishment
- This may range from the minor (bad table manners) to the extreme (punching someone)
- Some sociologists then distinguish between deviance and non-conformity
- Deviance, which invokes moral disapproval e.g. adultery, homosexuality
- Non-conformity which doesn't arouse such censure e.g. weird clothes, haircuts, piercings etc.
- Social Control
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